"Obvious pain disregarded by Wollongong Hospital - "

When a female patient was presented to emergency ward staff by a friend who had found her unconscious in her home after being alerted by a prior phone call asking for assistance, it seemed that the patient was forced to wait 8 hours for a bed. More to the point, the patient was experiencing severe abdominal pain and it appeared was denied pain relief beyond Panadol for 72 hours. The pain was so severe that the patient was routinely unable to stop moving her legs.

Hospital staff and doctors openly told the patient and attending friend that they believed her to be drug seeking despite some quite obvious pain centred on abdomen.

On the 5th day tests confirmed appendicitis requiring immediate surgery.